Soil pH in Inyo, CA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Inyo, CA

Typical topsoil in Inyo, CA is pH 7.95 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Inyo needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.95, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 60% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 486,631 surveyed acres in Inyo, CA, 64% are alkaline (above 7.3), 34% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 10.1, a spread of 4.3 units across 296 soil components. 64% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 13% clay and 0.82% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 60% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Inyo against the rest of California

pH 7.95 is 1.41 above the California median of 6.54. 56 of 58 California counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Tulare (7.27), Kern (7.49), San Bernardino (7.61), Kings (7.92), Imperial (8.16).

The range in California runs from Del Norte at 5.43 to Imperial at 8.16; Inyo sits 92% of the way up.